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Were they bending the rules for me? I couldn’t be sure because the rules had become so murky anyway.
“Can I leave tonight?” I asked, not wanting to be gone any longer than I had to be. No one would even know if I could go now and be back before morning. I had another thought. “And can I take my sister with me?”
“I don’t see why not,” Kessa said. “We’ll get a car ready and have your sister waiting for you as soon as we finish dinner.”
I wanted to decline and leave immediately, but I needed the fuel. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Resigning myself to waiting, I sat back in my chair and tried to fully process everything. I was an alpha? I shook my head. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any crazier.
“Okay, now that that’s over with,” Kessa leaned forward, her eyes shining, “I want to hear about the fight last night.”
“Kessa!” Bridger sounded disgruntled.
She simply shrugged. “She’s a good fighter—she took me down the night of the ball. I want to learn her strategy.”
I stared at her, not sure I’d heard correctly. That wolf had been powerful, relentless, and even a little bit scrappy. Perhaps Kessa and I weren’t so different after all.
* * *
Bridger had givenme access to a phone, only the second time since I’d come to the estate. I’d called ahead and let the elders know I was on my way to formally address the pack—my pack.
“I still can’t believe you’re alpha,” Jenna said in awe for what felt like the hundredth time. During the car ride over, I brought her up to speed on everything. “Do you know what you’re going to say to them?”
“Not really,” I admitted. This is where I definitely differed from Holden. He’d have all the right words planned well in advance. “But I have to remind myself that these are people we grew up with, who’ve known us all our lives. Branson changed things, but he was only around a couple of years. Not everyone liked him.”
His contingent of supporters that had aided him in his rise to power was a shockingly small percentage of our pack numbers, but no one had ever dared stand against Branson. Until now.
We arrived in town, the car pulling up to the front steps of the administrative building. So unlike yesterday. It was hard to believe that only twenty-four hours had passed. As we walked inside, I marveled at how there was no trace of what had happened here. Holden’s clean-up crew had done a thorough job.
With a pang, I realized how much I wished he was here with me. He’d know exactly what to say, what to do. Perhaps that was why his parents hadn’t told him what I had to do. One more test for me to prove myself.
I’d been alpha for less than a day, and already the burden was too much to bear. How did Holden do it? My respect for him increased ten-fold as I walked through the meeting room, all eyes on me as I stepped up on the dais—the same one Branson had stood on last night.
“Hello, everyone,” I began. “This isn’t how I expected to address you all the next time I saw you.” I glanced around at the people I’d known for so long, who’d lived in fear of their alpha. “Branson is gone, no longer a threat to any of you, something I saw to myself.”
As did the cheers and smiles, a round of applause broke out, surprising me. I swallowed against the lump in my throat, not expecting this kind of response.
“Thank you,” I managed to say, then glanced at the back of the room where Jenna was smiling encouragingly. “While my actions make me your alpha by right, I’m simply not fit to be your leader. It’s not something I aspired to, and I don’t have the training to do you justice. However, I will help you find another.”
I explained to those gathered how I’d like to handle my nomination. “For too long, you lived under a tyrant who did whatever he pleased and was only concerned with advancing himself. I would love to see you, my friends and packmates, have a say in who your leader is going forward. So as my first and only act as alpha, I will hold a vote.”
Murmurs went through the crowd, and a soldier, one Holden had temporarily installed to ensure none of Branson’s followers took control, approached me.
“That isn’t how it’s supposed to be done,” he whispered, his eyes wide even as he bent his head in respect. “You must name a replacement.”
“Are you alpha of this pack, or am I?” I asked with an arched brow. His eyes flared even bigger, and he stepped back.
“As I was saying…”
It took hours, but by the time Jenna and I were ready to leave, we’d successfully held the first democratic election in the history of all the North American packs. I hoped it wouldn’t be the last. It was good to see some familiar faces, my parents’ friends and my old bosses, but overall, I wasn’t sorry to leave my pack lands. There was nothing left for me there now that Jenna was with me.
It was past midnight when the car pulled up in front of Holden’s estate. He was there waiting, opening the door as soon as we came to a stop.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me to him, wrapping me tightly in his arms. Then he pulled back and gave me a hard look. “Never leave the estate again without speaking to me first.”
“That’s what you have to say to me?” I wriggled out of his grasp and glared right back. “You don’t own me, Holden Wilder.”
He gritted his teeth together. “That’s not what I meant, Kayden.”
“That again.” We were going in circles with this already, and I simply didn’t have the energy. As much as I wanted to lean into his embrace and tell him everything, I couldn’t.
